Here’s a look at information and statistics concerning domestic (intimate partner) violence.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, intimate partner violence includes victimization by current and former spouses or current and former dating partners. Violence can include physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse, according to the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women.
Worldwide:
Thirty-five percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence, according to the United Nations.
According to a Global Study on Homicide, of all women who were the victims of homicide globally in 2012, an estimated half were killed by intimate partners or family members.
United States:
Each day – Three or more women are murdered by their boyfriends or husbands on average, according to the American Psychology Association.
Each year – Over 10 million women and men are victims of intimate partner violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Between 1994 and 2011, the rates of serious intimate partner violence perpetrated on women fell 72%.
According the Center for American Progress, “More than half of all women killed by intimate partners between 2001 to 2012 were killed with guns.
18.3% of intimate partner violence victims received assistance from a victim service agency in 2015, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline (and loveisrepect, its project for teens and young adults) answered 323,669 calls, chats and texts in 2016.
Timeline:
June 19, 1990 – S. 2754, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is introduced in Congress by Senator Joseph Biden, but it is not enacted.
June 1991 – The American Medical Association publishes recommendations that physicians routinely inquire about possible abuse.
January 21, 1993 – Biden re-introduces the bill.
September 13, 1994 – President Bill Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act into law within the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. It must be renewed every five years. The law also establishes the Violence Against Women Policy Office and the Violence Against Women Grants Office (now the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women.)
February 21, 1996 – The National Domestic Violence Hotline receives its first calls, and gets 4,826 calls its first month.
1999 – The Office of Violence Against Women is created by a merger of the Violence Against Women Policy Office and the Violence Against Women Grants Office.
October 28, 2000 – The Violence Against Women Act of 2000 is reauthorized with new provisions and signed into law by President Clinton. The new provisions include the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and expanded measures for battered immigrant women.
August 2, 2003 – The hotline receives its millionth call.
January 5, 2006 – The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 is signed into law by President George W. Bush, with new provisions on dating violence, Native American women and the use of DNA fingerprinting.
April 28, 2009 – The National Domestic Violence Hotline receives its two millionth call.
April 26, 2012 – The Senate votes on S.1925 to reauthorize VAWA with expanded measures to include battered illegal immigrant women, Native American women and the LGBT community.
May 16, 2012 – The House votes on H.R. 4970 to reauthorize VAWA. The House version omits the expanded measures of the Senate bill.
December 31, 2012 – For the first time since it was enacted, VAWA expires. VAWA, which must be renewed every five years, is not reauthorized by Congress.
March 7, 2013 – S.47, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 is signed into law by President Barack Obama with new provisions. The new provisions address the needs of undocumented immigrant women, Native American women, the LGBT community and teen dating violence and they reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
March 13, 2013 – Vice President Biden announces the Obama Administration’s Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative as part of the reauthorization of the Violence against Women Act.
July 2013 – The National Domestic Violence hotline receives its three millionth call.
March 9, 2015 – UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon states that the world has made “uneven progress” in combating violence against women and gender inequality and that it still “persists in alarmingly high levels.”
January 2017 – President Donald Trump signs executive order “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.” According to the Tahirih Justice Center, the order may keep abused women who are undocumented from seeking legal protection for fear of deportation.
